Howdy folks!

Next month Hermit and Pig will be featured in the EGX Leftfield Collection in London. This will be the first time anyone sees a build of our demo (who isn’t our families or friends). If you happen to be around please come and give an anxiety-inducing hello!

More importantly, this means a demo beta is around the corner, so save the date! Important details below:

• When is it? The beta will open Friday, Nov. 17 at noon EST and you’ll have access until Monday, Nov. 20 at 10pm EST. We’re estimating you’ll need about an hour to do the full play through. If you can’t make it this time, we’ll have other opportunities in the future.

• How do I access it? This is a closed beta, so you have to be signed up to our studio listserv [heavylunch.studio]to participate. If you sign up, then we'll email you a temporary Steam key November 17. We’ll also share a link to a feedback and bug reporting form, and access to a Discord if you’re on the more social side of life. There may even be prizes involved.

We’ve added a lot of cool stuff to this little build including more characters, mini-bosses, and a dungeon with a real angry opossum.

Preparation is still underway; in the meantime, we’d appreciate it if you'd let others know about the beta - the more feedback we get the better!

Thanks for reading!

Mason and Nathan

Howdy!

The past month has been a busy one as we’ve continued to push to get this demo done. One of the biggest updates was to give the player the option to a) use a controller on computers and b) to customize their controls.

We’re hoping this will give players a more accessible and pleasant experience. And while the technical details of the process are pretty boring, the implications are important. Our battle system is based on directional key combos that roughly correspond to the physical attack (i.e., the Stomp attack suggests a rise and fall motion, while the Punch mimics a real life punch combo, jab-jab-cross).

By default, keyboards use WASD for movement so we set those keys as the default for combos as well. HOWEVER. People want to do things the way they want to do them. And we appreciate that. So, if players are so inclined, they can get wild and assign Up to the B key, Down to the 5 key, Left to the /, and Right to the Q key. Just for fun.

If you end up playing like this you'll have to report back. Until then, we’ll keep pushing this demo forward and get something for you to play as soon as we can! Make sure you sign up for our newsletter so that you can get access to our closed beta this year: https://www.heavylunch.studio/


Next month we're thinking about covering some mushrooms or NPCs - what do you want to hear about?